A16z, Paradigm lead $175 million bet to move global credit markets onchain

Morpho secured $175 million from Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit as the lending protocol seeks to become foundational infrastructure for onchain credit markets. Jun 9, 2026, 2:07 p.m. 1 min readMake preferred on Blockchain-based lending protocol Morpho said it raised $175 million in a funding round co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto and Ribbit Capital, as investors bet that credit markets will increasingly move onchain.The round also included Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, VanEck and Ledger Cathay, according to a post on the Morpho blog.Morpho operates an open credit network that allows institutions and fintech firms to build lending products on blockchain rails. The protocol has more than $11 billion in deposits and is used by institutional clients including Bitwise, Galaxy and Anchorage Digital, as well as crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.The raise highlights the interest in blockchain-based financial infrastructure from banks, asset managers and other traditional financial firms exploring tokenized assets and onchain settlement systems.Unlike many crypto projects that seek to replace traditional finance, Morpho is positioning itself as an infrastructure provider working with existing institutions. The company said its network can help unify fragmented lending markets and support programmable credit products at scale.Morpho said it will use the funds to develop its institutional lending infrastructure to build programmable credit products.AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.More For YouEdwin Mata argues that EU regulations are choking local startups, leaving the U.S. and automated AI tools to run the future of tokenized finance.What to know: Edwin Mata, CEO and founder of tokenization platform Brickken, projects that Wall Street will run entirely on blockchain technology by 2030.Mata also warned that Europe is over-regulating itself out of the race.Mata predicts that traditional software dashboards will soon be replaced by simple chat prompts, where AI agents...Read full story